The kitchen felt warmer than the rest of the house.
Pancakes sizzled on the stove while sunlight slipped through the windows, lighting everything in soft gold. Derek sat at the table, absently pushing syrup around his plate while his parents talked about schedules, errands, and completely normal things.
He nodded when he was supposed to. Answered when spoken to.
But his attention kept drifting.
The shadows under the table stretched longer than they should have.
When he moved his foot, they lagged behind slightly before catching up.
Derek blinked.
They returned to normal instantly.
I need more sleep, he told himself.
"Bus comes in ten," his mom said.
"Yeah," he replied quietly.
The school parking lot buzzed with noise as he was dropped off. Students gathered in groups, laughing and shouting across the pavement. Lockers slammed somewhere inside the building like distant thunder.
Everything looked ordinary.
But Derek couldn't shake the feeling that he didn't belong here anymore.
As he walked through the halls, fragments of memory flickered again.
Someone bumping into him near the lockers.
Laughter behind him.
A voice mocking him.
His jaw tightened.
He didn't know when those things had happened — but he felt them. Like scars without wounds.
Classes dragged on. Teachers talked. Notes were taken. Time moved normally for everyone else.
Not for Derek.
Every now and then, the lights dimmed slightly when his thoughts drifted too far. Shadows pooled faintly at the edges of the classroom walls before shrinking back when he noticed them.
By the final bell, a headache throbbed behind his eyes.
Students flooded into the hallway, eager to leave.
Derek grabbed his backpack and headed toward the exit.
That's when he saw him.
Leaning against a locker.
The boy from his memories.
Same face. Same smug expression. Same feeling of dread twisting in Derek's stomach.
The name surfaced automatically.
Ryan.
Derek stopped walking.
Ryan pushed himself off the locker, grinning as if this moment had already been planned.
"Well, look who finally decided to show up," Ryan said. "Thought you disappeared or something."
Derek frowned. "Do I know you?"
Ryan laughed. "Wow. Playing dumb now?"
A few students slowed nearby, sensing tension.
Memories slammed into Derek's mind — flashes of being shoved, laughed at, mocked in hallways he barely remembered living through.
His hands curled into fists.
"I'm not in the mood," Derek said, trying to walk past.
Ryan stepped into his path.
"Aw, come on. Don't walk away. That's kinda your thing, right?"
Something inside Derek snapped.
The pressure in his head surged.
The hallway lights flickered.
Behind Ryan, the shadow on the floor stretched unnaturally, rising slightly like smoke pulled upward by invisible strings.
Ryan didn't notice.
But Derek did.
And for the first time… he didn't feel scared.
He felt angry.
Ryan shoved his shoulder. "What? You gonna cry about it again?"
The shadow moved.
It wrapped around Ryan's ankles — unseen, silent — locking him in place.
Ryan's smirk faltered as he suddenly couldn't step back.
"What the—?"
Derek didn't think.
All the confusion, the memories, the feeling of being someone else in his own life boiled over.
His fist swung forward.
CRACK.
Ryan hit the floor.
Gasps filled the hallway.
Students backed away immediately.
A teacher rushed forward. "Derek! What are you doing?!"
The shadows snapped back to normal instantly.
Ryan groaned, clutching his face.
"I—he—" Derek started, but the words wouldn't come.
"Office. Now," the teacher said sharply, grabbing his arm.
The walk there felt unreal.
Whispers followed him down the hallway.
The principal folded his hands across the desk.
"I'm very disappointed in you, Derek."
Derek stared at the floor.
"He's been provoking me," Derek muttered.
"That doesn't justify violence," the principal replied firmly. "Especially not during school hours."
Silence filled the room.
After a long pause, the principal sighed.
"Given the circumstances, and your record…" he said, sliding a paper across the desk, "…you are being expelled effective immediately."
The words hit harder than the punch.
"Expelled?" Derek repeated.
"In the middle of the semester," the principal confirmed.
Everything felt distant. Muffled.
Like this moment was supposed to happen.
As Derek stood to leave, the lights in the office dimmed slightly.
The shadow beneath his feet stretched toward the door before him… as if guiding the way out.
And for the first time since waking up that morning, Derek realized something terrifying.
This wasn't an accident.
Something was pushing his life in a new direction.
And whatever it was—
it lived in the dark.